MAJOR CHALLENGE: “Keeping my emotions about the things that I’ve created separate,” Perini says.

PRODUCT STATUS: Available online and at one retail location in Montauk

Look to Annie Perini, entrepreneurs, for one of the most important lessons any small-business owner can learn – and most eventually do, often painfully: Trust must be earned.

It can be a bitter pill for someone like Perini, an inherently trusting type with an artist’s soul, and she learned the lesson the hard way in 2009, the first time she tried to launch a homegrown swimwear company.

She’d studied fashion design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and designed for national retailer Anthropolgie and lingerie superstar René Rofé, and the self-described beachcomber was ready to fulfill a personal dream by launching her own swimwear line.

So she went the traditional route, designing a few swimsuits and ordering samples. Her work quickly drew the attention of a Los Angeles-based retailer who offered to be her exclusive distributor, and Perini jumped at the chance, having about three dozen custom-designed swimsuits created by a local manufacturer and shipped to L.A., on the promise that the retailer would pay her within 30 days.

“My strong suit is creativity and design,” Perini said. “And I’m a very trusting person. So when these people told me to send all these suits and they’d pay in 30 days, I believed them.”

The retailer, of course, never paid. And the sour experience dashed Perini’s designing dreams – but only temporarily.

In February, with a little help from her boyfriend and a lot of help from Kickstarter, the entrepreneur officially launched Perini Swimwear, a beachwear bonanza featuring five bikini styles (in two different colors), three hats and a custom-crafted towel, tote and coozy. All of the products are personally designed by Perini and produced by JPW Service, a small manufacturer in Manhattan’s Garment District.

Perini was born in Brooklyn and moved to Montauk about 10 years ago, and if fashion design was always in her heart, swimwear was always in her soul.

“I just always loved bikinis,” she said. “I’m a beach girl and that’s just part of who I am.”

So even after her bad experience, Perini knew where she wanted to go professionally. Relying heavily on advice from her boyfriend – Sam Norvell, a hedge fund consultant – she launched a campaign on Kickstarter, with a goal of raising the $15,000 she calculated she’d need to get Perini Swimwear off the ground.

Just 30 days later, Perini’s campaign – helped in no small measure by a Pinterest portfolio showcasing her sexy wares – had raised $15,435 from 66 backers, including a sizeable donation from the Sloppy Tuna, a Montauk restaurant that served as a backdrop for one of those Pinterest modeling sessions.

“I was beyond amazed,” Perini said. “The number of people from Long Island who would message me and say ‘I just want to see a local girl succeed’ was amazing. But the No. 1 thing that helped me was the Sloppy Tuna … that donation put me over the top.”

With the funding in place and a nice relationship blossoming with JPW Service, Perini’s suits and other beach accessories are finding their sea legs. The current line is available online at PeriniSwimwear.com and digital sun-and-surf retailer SailAndSass.com, and on the rack at Montauk retailer Kailani.

Perini’s second attempt at launching her beach-based fashion empire is off to a strong start – thanks also to a Memorial Day weekend Sloppy Tuna launch party – but she’s already looking ahead to next season, when she hopes to expand both her wares and her points of purchase.

“I’m putting together my samples for next year, and once that’s completed, I plan to try and sell nationally,” Perini said. “I’ve already had inquiries from stores in Hawaii, Florida and California that are interested in carrying my line for next year.”

For now, she’s happily learning how to run her burgeoning company and enjoying Perini Swimwear’s early success.

“I’m not just doing the parts I love, which is designing the bikinis and towels and stuff,” Perini said. “I‘m learning how to run a business from the business aspect.”